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Tony Fitz: Cut Me Up

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Tony Fitz

 

Face front, true believers! I’m back in action! At least for the time being… As I’m on seasonal layoff from my day job through January, I’ll have enough time and brain power to contribute to the blog again, instead of just harassing you all on Twitter.

The NTSIB crew (can it be called a crew when there are just two of us?) love taking part in the Couch by Couchwest festivities every year, not least because we always manage together some new friends who also happen to be very talented. This past CXCW got us acquainted with Tony Fitz when he organized a very lovely Irish showcase.

Aside from all the behind-the-scenes work Tony does in production, recording, and sound engineering, he also makes music with his band Susie Soho. And in between everything else, he has began recording solo songs, releasing them on an as-ready basis, the first of which is “Cut Me Up”, which includes Ciaran Brady from Heritage Centre on drums, along with Jason Maher and Niall Campion on bass and guitar. Breaking my own rule of never comparing musicians, this song does slot easily beside Tony’s fellow countrymen the Frames in its laying bare the raw emotions of disappointment and anger while making you want to stomp, head bang, and fist pump to the jagged blasts of guitar and drums.

 


 

To check out Tony’s work on the technical side of things, you can listen to his production work for Red Sails on their EP We Still Build Forts, his live recordings for the Chapters, and his sound work for Homebeat.

 

Tony Fitz Official Website
Tony Fitz @ Twitter
Tony Fitz @ Facebook

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Zero Zero, DannytheStreet

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While we’re on the subject of clearing the electronica haze out of my head (albeit briefly) there’s this awesome little piece of rock n’ roll ephemera, which I was reminded of this weekend via the magic of Soundcloud.

Also, while there seem to be a lot of Danny The Streets out there, this particular one is Gerard Way, formerly of My Chemical Romance.

 

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Le Trouble, Reality Strikes

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Le Trouble are from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Their debut EP, Reality Strikes, will be released into the wild this coming Tuesday (November 5), and if you like punk rock dance parties, you should pick it up.

Here are two songs from it, to serve an enticements.

I’ve been an a weird electronica haze lately. Mission Bell was the perfect high energy palate-cleanser. The burst of bracing guitar at the beginning is especially refreshing.
 

 
Real Talk (Part 2) for when you need to break up with your significant other right now. It is probably the bounciest kiss-off I’ve heard for a while.
 

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SWF, Let It Be Told

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I am not going to lie, this record – Let It Be Told, by SWF (Stevie Weinstein Foner) – really made me cranky at first.

Then after a couple of listens, it grew on me. No, not like a fungus. More like moss. Psychedelic moss.

Now I find myself queueing it up with the express purpose of wrapping it around myself like a (slightly fuzzy, perhaps faintly horse-and-patchouli-scented) aural blanket.

There are songs like Turtle Brain that have lyrics like hey turtle brain, sparrow eyes, purple haze which is both a puzzle and someone I feel like I’ve met, all at the same time:
 

 
And Warrior, for rallying the internal troops / providing a late-afternoon jolt of energy:
 

 
And also Automobile Blues, which I like because sometimes I do miss driving around listening to the radio. But it does just as well with the rumble of the uptown train as with the roar of the highway.
 

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GRR, Ryan Ross

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Earlier this week, Ryan Ross‘ chrysalis opened and two demos emerged. Tonight the chrysalis has opened a little further, and let two more songs out.

Here they are in the order I listened to them:

Lonely Moonlight: the electronics shimmer rather than grind, as in the two demos, though there is some static-y hum at the end, and the vocals are denser, more layered, with just a hair of an echo. Poetry nerd alert: the lyrics suggests he might be sticking to the metaphor scheme he used in Pretty. Odd., but I’ll have to wait for more songs to surface to be sure. In any case, it’s a sweet song.
 

 
I Get Down: Another bouncy tune; I think this is a song about an inconstant lover, but all I can think of is maddeningly frustrating missed connections involving public transportation. Though I suppose those things are not mutually exclusive.
 

 

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We Are US, And This Is You

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We Are Us is: Silvio Pasqualini (voice/bass/guitars) and Maddalena Zavatta (voice/guitars) and they are from Rimini, Italy.

And This Is You is their first record; it contains only three songs, an intriguing taste of what might be waiting in the wings.

These are two which got my attention:

First there is You, which is a bouncy punk confection:
 

 
And then at the end there is Call Me, wherein they switch gears drift towards shoe-gaze:
 

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Lu Flur, Floriology

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Lu Flur is Jude HarpStar (electro acoustic harp + backing vocals) and Zahné (lead vocalist + acoustic guitar), and they are from Johannesburg, South Africa. They came together as a band on a rooftop in Melville, Johannesburg in the spring of 2012, and Floriology, released this past September, is their debut EP.

Their goals include making beautiful and distinctive music and changing the way people think about the harp in contemporary music. I can only speak for myself, but: mission accomplished, ladies.

There are five songs on the EP. They are all lovely; the two below are my favorites.

Future Tides is the first song on the EP, and it sets the tone. Zahné’s magnificent voice is front and center, reverberating through the delicate, shimmering castle of sound built by HarpStar.
 

 
Transluscent is the third song; it starts with an angry fuzzy riff that is the harp, not a guitar, which halfway through shifts and becomes like a soothing rain, and then at the end the angry fuzzy harp resurfaces, to duet with the soothing rain. It is marvelous.
 

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Late Night Listening: Ryan Ross demos

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These two new demos from Ryan Ross are Late Night Listening because the first time I heard them was at 3 AM today when I had been up for 24 hours. I’ve had some sleep now, and they are still really good, rough demos or not.

Off My Mind: Quasi-surfy instrumental with some muscle on the reverb and electronic highlights. I hope the fuzz remains in the finished version.
 

 
Where I Belong: I’m going to get the fannish flailing out of the way: It’s just really good to hear him singing again. But after my initial OH MY GOD THAT’S REALLY HIM moment, I kept listening to this song because of the way the guitars and the fuzzy electronics are twined together. Yes, fuzzy electronics, not fuzzy guitars. As far as I can tell. I may have to listen to it a bunch more times before I can be sure. The lyrics are sharp, too.
 

 
Verdict: A++, can’t wait to hear the rest.